Alina Pang

But the requirements for both of those markets are a little bit different.

Yes, we are importing a lot more honey.

Some of the top producers are India, Argentina, and Brazil.

So we are getting a lot more imports to fill that gap.

Yeah.

Pollination is just so crucial for, I mean, the U.S.

food supply system.

And so it's the case that, especially in California, a lot of the farmers there will pay beekeepers to move their hives to California for the season.

On the honey side...

It's hard because as imports flow in, prices essentially get dragged down.

Because if you're a beekeeper, you're usually not selling that honey direct to the farmer market for premium.

You're probably selling it to like a large scale commercial processor who may also be buying from India and Argentina and other places.

And so therefore you're going to end up getting less money for it.

Yeah.

Honey doesn't expire.

It can be stored for quite a bit.

And so that's helped companies like Mike's Hot Honey, for example, in terms of sort of hedging against that commodity exposure.

They can procure more when the market is good.

And there's some hope that the higher demand will sort of help right-size the situation in that if you as consumers –

keep paying up for honey and keep buying honey, that might incentivize more investment in the domestic industry.